023 / 75 · A Hot Meal to Carry
Sweet Potato, Kale and Chorizo Soup
About 8 1/2 cups (2 liters); 4 servings · Active 20 min · Total 50 min
Print recipe · PDFA little fully cooked chorizo seasons a whole pot of sweet potato, beans and kale. The sausage is an accent here, not a substitute for the vegetables. Its red oil colors the broth while mashed white beans give it a gentle thickness. The soup works well for a break that calls for something warm and spoonable, with enough texture to feel like dinner rather than a mug of broth.
Choose the correct sausage
Use a fully cooked, ready-to-eat Spanish-style chorizo, checking the package rather than assuming every sausage with that name is the same. Fresh Mexican-style chorizo is a raw product and needs a different method. Cut the cooked sausage into small quarter-moons so a little reaches each spoonful. If it releases a great deal of oil, you can lift off some before adding the onion without losing the flavor already in the pan.
Two textures from one can of beans
Mash one-third of the drained beans with a fork before they enter the soup. Those crushed beans dissolve partly into the stock, while the rest stay whole. This thickens the broth without cream or a separate blender. Keep the sweet potato in even cubes so it cooks before the kale loses its color. Add the kale only after those cubes are tender, and slice away any hard stems that would remain stringy.
Reheat the whole portion evenly
A soup with dense pieces can be steaming at the edges while the center is still cool. Stir during reheating and check several places, including a sweet potato cube, before filling a preheated food flask. Carry it hot only if your flask keeps it at 140°F/60°C or above until the break. When the schedule is uncertain, a fully chilled portion with cold sources and a reliable microwave is easier to manage safely.
Ingredients
- 5 oz fully cooked ready-to-eat Spanish-style chorizo, casing removed if necessary and cut into small quarter-moons (150 g)
- 1 teaspoon olive oil (5 ml)
- 1 medium onion, diced (150 g)
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (6 g)
- 1 lb 2 oz sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch (2 cm) cubes (500 g)
- 1 can cannellini beans (15 oz/425 g), drained and rinsed to yield about 1 1/3 cups (240 g)
- 1/2 can diced tomatoes with their juice (7 oz/200 g)
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken stock (960 ml)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (0.5 g)
- 4 cups chopped kale leaves, tough stems removed (120 g)
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt (1.5 g)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (0.5 g)
Set out
4-quart (4-liter) saucepan, Fork and small bowl, Instant-read thermometer
Allergens
Check chorizo and stock labels for milk, wheat, soy or other allergens. Check labels and substitutions.
Make it
- Warm the oil in the saucepan over medium heat. Add the chorizo and cook for 3 minutes, stirring, until some red oil is released. Add the onion and cook for 6–7 minutes until softened. Stir in the garlic for 30 seconds.
- Mash about one-third of the drained beans in the small bowl. Add the mashed and whole beans to the saucepan with the sweet potato, tomatoes, stock, thyme, salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and partly cover. Cook for 15–18 minutes until the sweet potato is tender when pierced.
- Add the kale and simmer uncovered for 5–7 minutes, until tender. Stir well and check that the soup is heated throughout to 165°F/74°C. Add a little boiling water if it is thicker than you prefer.
- Serve immediately. To carry hot, transfer to a preheated food flask, seal promptly and maintain 140°F/60°C or above until the meal. If your equipment cannot do that, cool and carry the soup chilled for reheating at work.
Freeze before the next roster change
Portion this soup into the amount you actually take to work. Freezing a single large block means you must thaw more than needed when the shift pattern changes.
A useful detail
This method assumes fully cooked chorizo. Do not substitute raw sausage without changing the cooking process and checking the appropriate safe internal temperature.
Another way
- Replace kale with 4 cups (120 g) chopped Swiss chard leaves; add finely chopped chard stems with the onion and leaves at the end.
- Use 5 oz (150 g) fully cooked smoked chicken sausage and add 1 teaspoon (2 g) smoked paprika with the garlic; the flavor will be different.
Keep it well
Refrigerate shallow portions within 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90°F/32°C, at 40°F/4°C or below for up to 3 days. Freeze for up to 2 months and thaw in the refrigerator. Reheat while stirring to 165°F/74°C. For chilled transport, use an insulated bag with two cold sources and refrigerate on arrival.